The present invention relates generally to the field of paginated data, and more particularly to identification of multi-media elements.
An Internet forum, also called a forum, discussion forum or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. Forums often have a specific set of jargon associated with them; e.g. a single conversation is called a “thread”, or topic.
Within a forum's topic, each new discussion started is called a thread. Threads, are the places under which members can start their discussions or posts, which can be replied to by many individuals of varying backgrounds and areas of expertise. Often, a thread is defined by a title, an additional description that may summarize the intended discussion. A thread can contain any number of posts, including multiple posts from the same members, even if they are one after the other.
A post is a user-submitted message included in a thread. Typically, the first post starts the thread; this may be called the TS (thread starter) or OP (original post). Posts that follow a TS in the thread, in general, continue a discussion initiated by the content of the TS, or respond to other replies. Since a large number of participants may be creating posts, a given thread can span an extended period of time and have thousands of entries. To present large threads, the posts of a thread are often paginated, i.e., presented as blocks of posts that are assigned to a given page. These posts can include attachments. An attachment can be almost any file and often include multi-media content such as video, audio or picture files in various formats; which are typically uploaded to the forum's server.